yesteryear

American  

[yes-ter-yeer, -yeer] / ˈyɛs tərˈyɪər, -ˌyɪər /

noun

1. last year.

2. the recent years; time not long past.

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adverb

1. during time not long past.

yesteryear British  

/ ˈjɛstəˌjɪə /

noun

1. last year or the past in general

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adverb

1. during last year or the past in general

Etymology

Origin of yesteryear

yester- + year; apparently introduced by D.G. Rossetti (1870) to render Middle French antan (Villon)

Explanation

Yesteryear is an extremely poetic way to refer to the past. You might nostalgically talk about the town where you used to live as your home of yesteryear. The word yesteryear was actually invented by a poet, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, in 1870. Rossetti was searching for an accurate way to translate a phrase by the French poet Francois Villon — the line he came up with was "But where are the snows of yesteryear?" Other translators have substituted yore for yesteryear, but the latter is a word that perfectly captures a kind of nostalgia for a lost past.

Example Sentences

The Crazy Keyboards of Yesteryear And how they could lead us to a better typing future.

From Slate • Dec. 7, 2012

The Snows of Yesteryear looks back before their time frame, to the childhood and, implicitly, the formation of a writer.

From Time Magazine Archive

"You must never undertake the search for time lost," warns the last sentence of Gregor von Rezzori's The Snows of Yesteryear, "in the spirit of nostalgic tourism."

From Time Magazine Archive

Yesteryear We strolled together 'neath the greening trees, And heard the robin tune its flute note clear, And watched above the white cloud squadrons veer.

From The Cup of Comus Fact and Fancy by Cawein, Madison Julius

Yesteryear he was mad for the open air, and the games, and the joy of life.

From The God of Love by McCarthy, Justin H. (Justin Huntly)